Restaurants accused of pocketing healthcare surcharges

Restaurant owners in San Francisco pocketed extra fees that were intended to help cover the cost of providing health insurance for their employees, according to local officials.

San Francisco requires employers to set aside a certain amount of money to help pay for a program that covers uninsured residents. 

Some restaurants in the city decided to tack funds onto customers' bills as a stand-alone fee — a tactic some restaurants have also explored in response to the employer mandate in President Obama's healthcare law.

But in San Francisco, more than 50 restaurants allegedly kept the money themselves, rather than paying into the healthcare program, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The paper said city officials are set to announce an "amnesty program" Friday that will allow restaurant owners to pay back a portion of what they owe.

"These diners thought they were paying for workers' healthcare. Instead these owners were gaming the system," San Francisco Supervisor David Campos told the Chronicle.